9/29 - The First 2 Rap Songs to Hit #1 Were Both by White Rappers?
Plus the famous '80s comedy it turns out David Letterman auditioned for
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
September 29th, 2023 • Issue 171
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
September 29th
1983 - Microsoft Word launched.
1984 - Prince’s single Let’s Go Crazy hit number one, giving him a simultaneous number one single, album, and film.
1985 - The first of seven victims of Tylenol laced with cyanide died.
1985 - MacGyver premiered on ABC.
MacGyver only used a gun two times during the show’s five-season run.
The MacGyver character hated guns — and the story was a childhood friend of his was accidentally shot and killed. But in reality, guns ruined the conceit of the show — they’re a shortcut and without them, he had to improvise other solutions to get out of danger.
As a result of the origin story of MacGyver’s dislike of guns, the National Rifle Association organized a boycott of the show.
And yet… it turns out MacGyver actually did use guns twice in the series’ five seasons. He fires an automatic weapon in the pilot, and then uses a gun (and turns it into a wrench, too) later in the series.
1986 - Designing Women premiered on CBS.
1987 - Thirtysomething premiered on ABC.
1988 - The space shuttle Discovery was launched, the first since the Challenger explosion.
1988 - The U.S. men’s basketball team won bronze at the Olympics.
1989 - Zsa Zsa Gabor was convicted of slapping a police officer.
1989 - Thundercats had its series finale.
1990 - Nelson’s single (Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection hit number one.
1991 - My Own Private Idaho hit theaters.
1992 - Stone Temple Pilots’ album Core was released.
1992 - Magic Johnson announced his comeback to the NBA.
1993 - Grace Under Fire premiered on ABC.
1993 - A Bronx Tale hit theaters.
1997 - Robbie Williams’s first solo album, Life Thru a Lens, was released.
1998 - Jay Z’s album Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life was released.
1998 - Felicity premiered.
2000 - Remember the Titans hit theaters.
September 30th
1982 - Cheers premiered.
1984 - Murder She Wrote premiered on CBS.
1985 - The cartoon M.A.S.K. premiered.
1991 - The Jerry Springer Show premiered.
1992 - Snow’s single Informer was released.
1993 - Tevin Campbell’s single Can We Talk was released.
1995 - Silverchair’s one hit, Tomorrow, peaked at number 28.
1995 - Mariah Carey’s single Fantasy hit number one.
Mariah Carey did the remix of Fantasy featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard against her record label’s wishes — and it wound up accounting for half the song’s massive sales.
Mariah Carey’s label Columbia — run by her husband at the time, Tommy Mottola — didn’t like the idea of Mariah rubbing elbows with ODB because of what that might do to her family-friendly image.
She went ahead with the collaboration anyway — and the remix of Fantasy featuring ODB became a huge success. Fantasy sold more than six million units — and half were the remix.
Pitchfork magazine even named the remix #1 on their list of the 250 best songs of the 1990s.
1996 - Blackstreet’s single No Diggity was released.
1997 - Microsoft released the Internet Explorer 4 web browser.
1997 - Next’s single Too Close was released.
2001 - Alias premiered on ABC.
October 1st
1979 - The Mean Joe Greene Coke commercial aired for the first time.
1982 - The first CD player went on sale.
1982 - EPCOT Center opened on the 11th anniversary of Walt Disney World.
There were three nation pavilions planned for EPCOT’s opening that never materialized: Costa Rica, Israel, and Equatorial Africa.
When EPCOT opened, there were nine countries with pavilions in its World Showcase area: USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, France, the U.K., Japan, and China.
However, there were three more planned before the debut: Costa Rica, Israel, and Equatorial Africa.
For various reasons, plans for those three all fell through.
They’ve added just two more in the 40 years since the debut: Norway and Morocco.
1982 - Marvin Gaye’s final album, Midnight Love, was released.
1983 - Bonnie Tyler’s single Total Eclipse of the Heart hit number one.
1984 - The term “cyberspace” appeared for the first time in William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer.
1988 - Mikhail Gorbachev became the head of the Soviet Union.
1989 - America Online launched.
1989 - Denmark became the first country to legalize same sex civil unions.
1990 - Bette Midler’s single From a Distance was released.
1992 - Cartoon Network premiered.
1993 - Cool Runnings hit theaters.
1993 - ESPN2 premiered.
1993 - Crash Test Dummies’ single Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm was released.
1994 - Clarissa Explains It All aired its series finale.
1994 - The NHL’s 103-day lockout began.
1994 - Candlebox’s one hit, Far Behind, peaked at number 18.
1996 - Matchbox 20’s album Yourself or Someone Like You was released.
1996 - Animal Planet premiered.
1999 - Three Kings and Drive Me Crazy hit theaters.
2000 - The U.S. men’s basketball team won the Olympic gold medal and the U.S. locked up the most gold and total medals.
October 2nd
1982 - John Cougar’s single Jack and Diane hit number one.
1984 - Papa John’s Pizza was founded.
1992 - Mr. Baseball, Glengarry Glen Ross, and The Mighty Ducks hit theaters.
1995 - Oasis’s album What’s the Story, Morning Glory was released.
1995 - The Chicago Bulls traded for Dennis Rodman.
1995 - The jurors in the O.J. Simpson trial reached a verdict.
1998 - Antz hit theaters.
1998 - A Night at the Roxbury hit theaters.
A Night at the Roxbury killed Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan’s decade-long friendship.
Ferrell and Kattan met in the early ‘90s at the Groundlings improv troop in L.A. and were good friends as both became Saturday Night Live cast members.
But turning their SNL characters into the stars of A Night at the Roxbury killed their friendship.
Kattan says Ferrell stopped returning his calls after the movie ended.
The falling out apparently happened over the way Kattan ended things with his girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Coolidge — as Kattan and the movie’s producer (and famous director) Amy Heckerling had something going on.
2000 - Radiohead’s album Kid A was released.
2001 - Scrubs premiered on NBC.
October 3rd
1984 - Charles in Charge premiered.
1988 - The TNT network premiered.
The first programming ever aired on TNT was… only half of Gone with the Wind.
TNT debuted at 7:55 P.M. on October 3rd, 1988, with a message from founder Ted Turner and the National Anthem. After that, the network aired Gone with the Wind — but just the first half.
To watch the second half, people would have to tune in at 8:00 P.M. the next night.
Gone with the Wind was also the first movie to air when the Turner Classic Movies network launched in 1994. That time it aired in its entirety.
1989 - SimCity and Prince of Persia were both released.
1989 - Art Shell of the Oakland Raiders became the first Black head coach in the NFL.
1992 - Bill Gates topped the Forbes richest persons list for the first time.
1992 - Sinead O’Connor ripped up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live.
1995 - Mariah Carey’s album Daydream was released.
1995 - The O.J. Simpson not guilty verdict was delivered.
1998 - Monica’s single The First Night hit number one.
2001 - Eternal punchline According to Jim premiered.
2003 - Roy of Siegfried & Roy was bitten by a tiger on stage.
October 4th
1980 - Queen’s single Another One Bites the Dust hit number one.
1980 - Heathcliff premiered on ABC’s Saturday morning cartoon lineup.
1985 - Commando hit theaters.
1986 - Dan Rather was attacked by someone yelling, “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”
1987 - The NFL featured replacement players during a strike.
1988 - Televangelist Jim Bakker was indicted for fraud.
1990 - Beverly Hills 90210 premiered.
1990 - Londonbeat’s single I’ve Been Thinking About You was released.
1991 - Suburban Commando hit theaters.
1993 - The 3DO video game system was released.
Time magazine picked the 3DO as the Best Product of the Year for 1993.
Despite 3DO’s low sales, high price ($700), and limited game library, it blew away the people at Time. They named it the number one product of the year, citing its “jaw-dropping visuals” and how it was the “most powerful video game system yet.”
It beat out other runners-up for their product of the year including PDAs, one of the first commercially-available low-fat ice creams, and Barney the Dinosaur.
1996 - D3: The Mighty Ducks hit theaters.
1996 - That Thing You Do hit theaters.
1997 - “The Ladies Man” debuted on SNL.
1999 - Faith Hill’s single Breathe was released.
October 5th
1988 - Lloyd Benson defeated Dan Quayle in a vice presidential debate.
1990 - Henry and June, the first NC-17 movie, was released.
1991 - PM Dawn’s single Set Adrift on Memory Bliss was released.
1991 - Marky Mary & the Funky Bunch’s single Good Vibrations hit number one.
Good Vibrations was the second rap single to become a number one hit — both by white rappers.
The first rap song to hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 was Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby in 1990.
On October 5th, 1991, Marky Mark (aka Mark Wahlberg) and the Funky Bunch’s Good Vibrations became the second rap track to hit number one.
And both came from white rappers.
(Later in 1991, PM Dawn’s Set Adrift on Memory Bliss — which came out on October 5th — became the third rap number one and first by a Black artist. Though it’s not exactly a traditional rap track. In 1992, Kris Kross’s Jump became the next rap number one.)
1991 - The first version of Linux was released.
1994 - The NBA shortened the three-point line.
1998 - The notorious sitcom The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer premiered on UPN.
1999 - Angel premiered.
2001 - Training Day hit theaters.
2001 - Barry Bonds set a record with his 71st and 72nd home runs in one season.
2002 - Kelly Clarkson’s single A Moment Like This hit number one.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Just revealed: David Letterman auditioned for the lead role of Ted Striker in Airplane! Letterman says it was yet another early career sign he couldn’t act.
Moonlighting is coming to streaming for the first time. The entire series will debut on Hulu on October 10th.
Kevin Bacon says he rejected the fame he got after Footloose because he wanted to be seen as a serious actor.
Pauly Shore wants to play Richard Simmons in a (hypothetical) biopic.
James Cameron says he almost died underwater while making The Abyss.
Burkey Belser, the designer of the food nutrition facts box which debuted in 1994, passed away on Monday at age 76.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
This list catalogs the best Quentin Tarantino characters. There are some surprises and omissions, especially from the ‘90s movies.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Here are the 50 worst decisions in movie history by Rolling Stone. There are some classics in there from the time period of this newsletter — many of which you’ve likely forgotten about (thankfully) over time.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Here’s the story of hip-hop’s most sampled sound with the strangest origin story. It’s the “Ahh” and “Fresh” sound from the 1982 song Change the Beat by Beside.
Have a great week!
-Sam